Gage,
THOMAS, military officer; born in England about 1721; was
second son of Viscount Gage; entered the army in his youth; was with
Braddock at his defeat on the Monongahela, when he was
lieutenant-colonel; and led the advance. In that hot encounter he
was wounded. Late in 1758 he married a daughter of Peter Kemble,
president of the council of New Jersey. Gage served under Amherst in
northern New York and Canada, and on the capture of Montreal by the
English in 1760 he was made military governor of that city. He was
promoted to major-general, and in 1763 succeeded Amherst as
commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. In 1774
he succeeded Hutchinson as governor of
Massachusetts, and occupied
Boston with troops, much to the annoyance and irritation of the
inhabitants. Acting under instructions from his government rather
than in accordance with his conscience and judgment, he took
measures which brought on armed resistance to British rule in the
colonies. When his demand for 20,000 armed men at Boston was
received by the ministry they laughed in derision, believing that a
few soldiers could accomplish all that was necessary to make the
patriots cower.

Lord Dartmouth wrote to Gage, in the King's name,
that the disturbers of the peace in Boston appeared to him like a
rude rabble " without a plan, without concert, and without conduct,"
and thought a small force would be able to encounter them. He
instructed him that the first step to be taken towards the
re-establishment of government would be to arrest and imprison the
principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress, whose
proceedings appeared like rebellion and treason. He suggested that
the measure must be kept a secret until the moment of execution. "If
it cannot be accomplished," said Dartmouth, " without bloodshed, and
should be a signal for hostilities, I must again repeat, that any
efforts of the people, unprepared to encounter with a regular force,
cannot be very formidable." This was written only a few weeks before
the affairs at
Lexington and Concord. Dartmouth continued, " The charter of
Massachusetts empowers the governor to use and exercise the law
martial in time of rebellion." It appears, from statements in
official dispatches, he believed there was an " actual and open
rebellion " in that province, and therefore the exercise of his
powers named were justifiable. The movements of ministers were
keenly watched. " Your chief dependence," wrote Franklin to
Massachusetts, "must be on your own virtue and unanimity, which,
under God, will bring you through all difficulties." Garnier, the
French ambassador at London, wrote to Vergennes, " The minister must
recede or lose America forever."

Minutemen Confronting British
Redcoats

In his report of the
battle of Bunker Hill,
General Gage said to Lord Dartmouth, "The trials we have had show
the rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them
to be; and I find it owing to a military spirit encouraged among
them for a few years past, Joined with uncommon zeal and enthusiasm.
They intrench and raise batteries —they have engineers. They have
fortified all the heights and passes around this town (Boston),
which it is not impossible for them to annoy. The conquest of this
country is not easy; you have to cope with vast numbers. In all
their wars against the French they never showed so much conduct,
attention, and perseverance as they do now. I think it is my duty to
let your lordship know the true situation of affairs." Franklin
wrote to his English friends, " Americans will fight; England has
lost her colonies forever."

Gage, performing no act of courage during the
summer of 1775, while Washington was besieging Boston, endeavored to
terrify the Americans and to keep up the spirits of his own soldiers
by warning the former that thousands of veteran warriors were coming
from Russia and the German principalities to crush the "unnatural
rebellion." He vented his ill humor upon American prisoners in his
hands, casting into prison officers of high rank, thinking thus to
terrify the common soldiery, whose intelligence and courage he
entirely under-rated in reality, though praising them when it suited
his purpose. Against this treatment Washington remonstrated; but
Gage insolently scorned to promise " reciprocity with rebels," and
replied: "Britons, ever pre-eminent in mercy, have overlooked the
criminal in the captive; your prisoners, whose lives, by the laws of
the land, are destined to the cord, have hitherto been treated with
care and kindness—indiscriminately, it is true, for I acknowledge no
rank that is not derived from the King."

Washington remembered that Gage's want of presence
of mind had lost the battle of the Monongahela and replied, in a
dignified manner: "I shall not stoop to retort and invective. You
affect sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same source as
your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows
from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest
source and original fountain of all power. Far from making it plea
for cruelty, a mind of true magnanimity would comprehend and respect
it."

After the affairs at Lexington, Concord, and
Bunker Hill, Gage was ungenerously held responsible for the blunders
of the ministry, and resigned his command in October, 1775, when he
was succeeded by General William Howe as chief of the forces in
America. He died in England, April 2, 1787.

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